


Artificial Intelligence

by Trash



Category: Linkin Park
Genre: M/M, Robot!Linkin Park
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-02
Updated: 2013-01-02
Packaged: 2017-11-23 09:14:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/620503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trash/pseuds/Trash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Throughout human existence there has been a constant need for evolution. This still holds true, even as the Sun dies. That's where the robots come in. But, as it turns out, robots are more human than humans will ever be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Five

Throughout human existence there has been a constant need for evolution. Darwin’s theory. You know, survival of the fittest.

 

This still holds true, even as the Sun dies.

 

There are warnings all over the world - any woman who is found to be newly impregnated will be arrested. The pregnancy will be terminated. The foetus will be evacuated, they say, as if it’s a rescue mission instead of murder. They say it’s for the baby’s own good – if it were born it wouldn’t see its twentieth birthday. It’d grow up only to die.

 

The older generations sob and pray to God, as if he’s listening, as if he isn’t off somewhere playing poker. Or listening to rap music through bass-line-enhancing headphones. As if he gives a shit anymore.

 

Nobody says it, but everybody knows it. Humans face extinction. They’re all going to die.

 

Of course, their best scientists from across the globe are working on creating an artificial Sun in space. But nothing could possibly heat the world the way the Sun did. But when faced with death, anything is worth a try.

 

The idea of their whole history being wiped out, their lives and loves and hates and victories all being destroyed, terrifies some people. The idea of being invaded by life forms from other planets terrifies them too. Surprising how possessive human’s are over a planet they’ve been destroying for billions of years.

 

That’s where the robots come in.

 

Advanced technology and the wonder of artificial intelligence is what made it possible. They were born in the dark of an old military hanger in Area 51. Born, created, same thing. Every moving body in that hanger was a product, the humans included.

 

Almost indistinguishable from humans, the robots were given tracking devices. They were given a stock set of emotions, some set higher than others creating their personalities. Their names were assigned by the scientists going through the alphabet and picking one name for each letter.

 

Their ages assigned at random, judging by their appearance.

 

At night the hanger was locked and guarded by armed men who wore layers thick enough to fight off the freezing cold as dark fell.

 

***

 

Chester, he’s 32, and he’s an anthropomorphic being. He is mechanical, he’s a droid, a mech. He’s a robot. And he knows this. He’s accepted it. Because, really, it wasn’t his place  _not_  to accept it.

 

He accepted anything, really. For a long time he lived with another robot called Mike who had a low tolerance for humans and refused to travel to Nevada for checkups, which meant he’d go for weeks without his oil changed and he’d creak when he moved which was just brilliant when Chester tried to shut down at night.

 

He didn’t let them update his firewall, either, so he was constantly being hacked and catching viruses from rogue users. Which made the living situation more unbearable.

 

One day he woke up to an empty house and waited for Mike to come home for hours. Eventually three men in suits showed up on his doorstep with a timid young man in baggy jeans and an old T-shirt.

 

The first man, Chester remembers him from Nevada where all of the robots go for checkups once a month. He says “I’m sorry, but Michael suffered a major malfunction and won’t be around anymore.”

 

Chester shrugs and nods, says, “Okay.”

 

“And this is your new house mate.” He says, stepping out of the way to reveal the fourth person who looks up at Chester then away as if in fear. “His name is Rob.”

 

“Okay.”

 

Rob steps forward hesitantly, looking at the other men for reassurance and they all give him patronising smiles, but Rob doesn’t notice, takes their expressions as friendliness.

 

“Rob has a personality defect,” the man mutters, “Someone wasn’t paying attention when they were altering his settings and his social level is so low he hardly interacts with anybody.”

 

Chester smiles fondly at Rob, stepping back to let him in the doorway, “I’ll show you around.”

 

Rob nods, staring at the ground.

 

The men nod and smile. Two of them turn to leave but the first stays, saying “Look out for him. He can’t really defend himself. And if he gets damaged he’ll be written off.”

 

Chester nods, “Yeah. Sure. I’ll watch out for him.”

 

***

 

Living with Rob is a trial at first. He flinches away whenever Chester approaches him, and always looks terrified he’ll be hurt despite Chester’s several promises that he won’t be.

 

He can’t shut down at night because all he can hear is Rob in the next room, tossing and turning in his bed. Turns out his personality wasn’t the  _only_  defected thing. For whatever reason, Rob can’t shut down. It takes him a lot longer than it should. It frustrated Chester at first but he got to live with it.

 

Rob warmed to him eventually, trusted him, talked to him. He was kind and he was friendly but, up until recently, he was too shy to be trialled amongst humans. He couldn’t work anywhere because of his anxiety. Which gave him plenty of time to do…nothing.

 

Well…not really nothing. Every day Chester came home from work at the ground control centre for NASA, where he was part of a team of humans and robots communicating with the astronauts in space building the artificial sun, to Rob dancing in the living room to music from the year 2000.

 

It was funny to watch, the way he looked so carefree and happy as he moved. But then the minute Chester made his presence known Rob would duck his head and blush furiously.

 

“You know,” Chester says, “There’s a club not far from here that plays this stuff.”

 

Rob grins, “Really?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Oh,” Rob sighs, “A club. Full of people. Where I’ll have a system failure and shut down. I can’t.”

 

Chester smiles and steps forward, grabbing Rob’s hands and dancing with him making the other robot laugh, “I’ll be there,” he says, “I promised I’d watch out for you. Surely you’re bored of just…sitting in here?”

 

“Not really. I don’t get bored.”

 

“We should go out. And if you crash then you crash and we’ll come back home. And never go again. Okay?”

 

And Rob nods, smiles and says “Okay,” but his voice is so quiet it’s lost to the ridiculous bass line of the music.


	2. Four

They stand across the street from the club and wait until the queue dies down before heading inside. Rob’s expression is one of complete terror. For a droid who was created to show no fear in the face of danger, Rob falls pretty short of the ideal robot.

Chester presses close to his side and flashes him a reassuring smile as they push through the crowds towards a space at the bar. “You okay?” Chester yells over the music?”

Rob nods and gives him a tiny smile. “Just don’t go anywhere and I’ll be fine.”

The music sucks, but Rob seems to be having a good time just watching people dance from a safe distance, so he doesn’t say anything. He leans against the bar and yells into Rob’s ear “Want a drink?”

“We can’t...we can’t drink alcohol!”

“No I mean water.”

“Oh. Okay. Sure. Thanks.”

Chester yells his order to the barman and beside him somebody snorts.

“You’re either a complete pussy, or you’re a droid.”

“Excuse me?”

The man raises an eyebrow and downs one of the shots he has lined up on the bar. His hair is a mass of wild curls and his expression is one of distaste. He is tall, thin and wearing jeans a size too big for him. His shirt is fitted, and his smile is tight.

Few humans know who the robots are. Chester and Rob’s generation were created as a trial. If they functioned well and performed their jobs properly then more of them would be created, if not it was back to the drawing board.

The whole point was that when the Sun died the robots would be there to defend the planet from invaders and finish where the humans left off building the perfect artificial star. They’d be trained enough to know when the conditions were good enough for the human race to be re-created using stored eggs ready for fertilisation.

This was all pretty much top secret. Few humans even knew robots were walking amongst them. So that meant this guy either worked in Area 51, or he was a droid too.

“What’s it to you?”

“Only a droid would order water at a bar.”

“Are you from Nevada?”

The guy nods and laughs, “Yep. I’m just like you, dude.” He takes another shot and wipes his hand on his jeans before sticking it out, “I’m Brad.”

Taking the offered hand he says, “I’m Chester,” he glances over his shoulder at Rob who hovers nervously behind him, “And this is Rob.”

“You’ve got a virus.” Rob says but squeaks when Chester jabs an elbow into his ribs.

Brad laughs, “So you’re a droid too? Your antivirus program tell you that?”

Rob nods, looking a little startled, as if he had expected a completely different reaction.

“Yeah,” Brad says, “I have something the dorks upstate can’t fix. They hate me.”

Chester smirks and says, “You’re not supposed to drink alcohol.”

“Another reason they hate me. It really fucks with your circuits, but it’s so amazing. You guys should try it.”

"Thanks, but no thanks."

Brad shrugs and says, “It’s not the worst thing you could do to yourself. Once I caught the virus I stopped caring how well I functioned or what they thought of me. Did you know we’re made of metal?” He asks, knocking a fist to the bar, “Like that.”

Chester raises an eyebrow and Rob looks terrified.

“I found out and didn’t believe it. So I cut my leg open. And it didn’t even hurt. There were all these wires and shit. When I went back to Area 51 they went ape shit. Called me crazy.”

“Crazy?” Rob whispers, confused.

“Malfunctioning,” Chester explains. “So why haven’t they written you off?”

“Because I do my job.” He grins deviously, “And I do it good.” He slides a shot to Chester who stares at it dubiously. Brad rolls his eyes, “I’m a mechanic. Once they’re done training me they want to send me into space. To help build their giant light.”

“Artificial Sun,” Rob corrects, too quiet for Brad’s sensors to detect.

“Don’t they just install that stuff onto you? I mean, they can just put in a disk and you’d be ready straight away.” Chester says to his shot glass.

Brad shakes his head, “Sure, they could. But you can’t install team work and all that bullshit from a disk.”

Chester had never met such a corrupt robot before. And he’d thought Mike was bad. He bites his lip and looks to the shot glass Brad gave him. “What’ll happen if I drink it?”

Behind him Rob makes a little noise and tenses but Chester ignores him. Brad grins and lifts it to Chester’s lips, “Let’s see, shall we?”

It’s like someone set fire to his motherboard. Everywhere in his body burns in a way he isn’t sure he likes. He’s aware of Rob’s concerned gaze boring into the back of his head, but he closes his eyes, leaning heavily on the bar.

“See?” Brad says, his voice low and meant only for Chester to receive. “Doesn’t it feel amazing?”

Chester just nods dumbly and turns back to the barman, yelling “Water? Please!”

***

He wakes up with Rob sitting on the end of his bed looking worried. “Hi.”

“Hey,” Chester croaks, his voice gravely with sleep. “What happened?”

“I’m pretty sure you had a major malfunction.”

“Huh?”

Rob looks flustered, “That Brad! I can’t believe you trusted him! He could have gotten you written off!”

“Calm down, Rob.”

“No,” he snaps, getting to his feet, “I won’t. You saw the state he was in! He’s completely corrupt. And he has a virus. And he’s been hacked I don’t know how many times. You know we’re not supposed to drink alcohol, there’s a reason for that. You can’t function properly with that stuff in your system!”

“Rob-”

“You promised, Chester, that if I got scared we could go home. But we stayed even when you did that shot and crashed. I had to carry you home. You were so desperate to impress that idiot but where was he when you couldn’t walk? He’s no friend.”

“I-”

Rob sniffs sadly, “He’s no friend to you and I’m starting to think you’re no friend to me.”

He spins around and storms out, slamming the bedroom door so hard it falls into the room, completely ripped from its hinges.


	3. Three

Despite Rob’s intense dislike of Brad, he and Chester meet up. On their day off, after daily diagnostics checks. Where they meet up is the park, or what was the park. It’s too cold now for the trees that once filled it to thrive. The ponds are full of dead fish.

 

Brad sits on a rusted metal bench and flashes Chester a smile as it approaches, “Yo.”

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“Something the guys at work say. Apparently I get all my bad habits from them.”

 

Robots are meant to be blank canvases, only knowing what their creators have taught or uploaded onto them. But humans are unavoidable and so are their ways. Rob once told Chester that he was so sensitive because he’d been looked after by female staff when he was still in Nevada.

 

Chester thought that was a funny mental image, Rob surrounded by female humans fawning over him. He smiles faintly and stares out over the pond at the upturned shopping cart half submerged in the shallow area. In the middle is a traffic cone and there are tyres on the shore.

 

Brad scoffs, following Chester’s line of sight. “It wasn’t always like that,” he says. “It used to be beautiful. Families and shit would come here. But then it got too cold for much to really live. And the drug addicts used this as their hang out.”

 

“How do you know that?” Chester asked, slightly excited.

 

“A guy at work, Joe, he told me. His wife got pregnant so they arrested her.”

 

“Oh. Well…she shouldn’t have gotten pregnant.”

 

Brad snaps, “Are you kidding? Why not! This guy has wanted kids his entire life. So what if it won’t see its twentieth birthday? That’s better than some people get.”

 

“But she’ll have a baby just to watch it die.”

 

“That’s what having children is all about, Chester. Everybody dies.”

 

“We don’t.”

 

Brad’s expressions goes blank and he nods, “No. We don’t.”

 

Chester senses he said the wrong thing and immediately searches his memory bank for something positive to say, “We’re heroes, though. We’re going to save the human race.”

 

“We’re not heroes,” says Brad, “We’re slaves.”

 

***

 

It comes time to travel to Nevada again. They have to travel by bus instead of aeroplane because it’s so cold up there now you’d never make it to your destination alive.

 

They take their seats and Chester leans out into the aisle, watching with a smirk as Brad steps onto the bus.

 

He leans in to Rob quickly whispering, “You know how our job is to save the human race? Does that make us heroes or slaves?”

 

A frown crosses Rob’s face briefly as he considers the question then he says “Heroes. We’re heroes.” He beams with something along the lines of pride. Proud of himself, of his race.

 

It’s then that Chester realises how different he and Rob are. And how maybe he really needs Brad in his life.

 

***

 

When the bus grinds to a halt Rob presses his face against the window to watch the soldiers pull the tall gates open to allow them in. The bus trundles through and up towards the hanger they’re so used to seeing. There seems to be a lot more people milling around the site than usual, but it means nothing to Chester who gazes on with artificial apathy.

 

He slides out of his seat and waits for Rob to do the same. The pair shuffle down the central aisle to the front then step off into the dirt, heading after the others towards the hanger.

 

Chester’s visual sensors detect Brad ahead of them and he calls out, “Hey, droid!”

 

Nobody turns but Brad and when he does he grins and stops walking, waiting for Rob and Chester to catch up. Rob visibly tenses as they get closer and he murmurs, “What are you doing?”

 

Chester ignores him and claps Brad on the back, “Hello.”

 

“Hey.” Brad smiles, turns to Rob and winks, “Hey.”

 

Rob ducks his head and looks away, walking along beside them awkwardly. He doesn’t want anything to do with Brad. He’s bad news, and he’s pretty sure Chester has a serious internal error if he thinks this robot is a good friend.

 

“I hear we’re getting upgraded,” says Chester, casually.

 

“Oh?”

 

“Yeah. I heard some others talking. They said it’s because of all the recalls they’ve been having to make. They said they’re going to start from scratch.”

 

Brad slows his pace and Chester frowns, doing the same. Rob glances back over his shoulder then scurries back to where they are, saying, “That means I’ll be good enough to get a job,” he’s practically beaming, “I’ll finally be able to work!”

 

“They’re not just upgrading us.” Brad whispers with urgency, “Do you know what ‘start from scratch’ means?”

 

Neither of them do. And Brad groans. He says, to start again. That’s what it means. It means back to the drawing board, the online graphics layout. It means they’re all getting written off. And they won’t be the same robots when the engineers are done.

 

Rob shrugs, “So? We’ll be better? We’ll be more efficient.”

 

Brad grabs Chester’s arm and digs his fingers in hard, “Brad,” the robot warns, “let go.”

 

“We have to get out of here.”

 

“Why?”

 

Rob watches from a little way ahead, chewing his bottom lip, “Come on, Chester.”

 

Brad glances around, glad to see that none of the soldiers have noticed them, “I’m not letting them reset me. Okay? So you can either come with me, or I’ll come back sometime and you’ll not remember me so I’ll reintroduce myself.”

 

“We can’t just leave. We have tracking devices. They’d find us!”

 

“Isn’t it worth a try?” Brad asks. “Don’t you want to at least see how far we can get?”

 

Rob storms over to them, “Leave him alone, Brad. Come on, Chester, we have to go.”

 

“Come with me,” Brad urges, tugging his arm, “let’s just break free and run.”

 

Chester stands frozen to the spot. He knows that the trouble they could get in is infinite, and he doesn’t want to leave Rob here alone. He promised he’d look after him. But if they’re getting restarted it’s not like a promise means anything anymore.

 

They stand either side of him, watching on expectantly.

 

He turns to Rob and sighs, “He’s right, Rob. We have to go. We can’t stay here. I don’t want to forget you.”

 

Drawing in the dirt with his foot Rob blinks, “But I can get a job.”

 

“You’ll be able to get one if we run. Nobody will know you’re a robot. Everyone will treat you like they treat each other. We won’t be slaves anymore.”

 

“We’re not slaves,” Rob snaps, defiantly, “We’re heroes.”

 

Brad makes a noise that sounds like metal on metal and goes right through Chester. He glares at Rob, “Even heroes are slaves.”

 

Now it’s Rob’s turn to be lost. He stares at Chester with a look that makes him feel guilty, but then he glances back at the hanger and nods. “I’ll come with you.” He says quietly, “I’ll come.”

 

***

 

Getting out of Area 51 is a lot easier than they had thought it would be. They were sure they’d have to fight their way out. After all, it’s the most secured area in the USA. Radars can’t pick it up, and no aeroplanes are allowed to fly over head.

 

Photography is prohibited, and the soldiers are authorised to use deadly force if necessary. It isn’t on any map anymore, so there aren’t many civilians hanging around anyway.

 

Either way, they’re pretty sure they’ll be caught at gun point before they escape.

 

Robots were trained to be obedient, and they never took Brad’s virus into consideration when they sent all of the soldiers to guard the front gate. So nobody is expecting what is to come.

 

They forgot, of course, that robots can bend just about any metal, that a chain link fence isn’t really an obstacle. They climb through the hole they create in the fence, somewhat bemused at how easily they did it, and run as fast as they can.

 

They can reach the nearest town on foot. It’s called Mercury, says Chester and Brad says, that’s what our blood is made of.

 

From there they steal a car, which really isn’t all that hard. The gas station they stumble across is all but abandoned, and there’s an old pickup truck in the forecourt with the keys under the sun visor in the exact way the police have warned you not to do.

 

The truck is run down, and it shakes as they head out onto route 95, heading towards Vegas. Rob sits to the right of Chester with Brad in the driving seat, and he’s scared to touch the door because of rust that is eating away at it like a cancer.

 

“Where are we going?” He asks, “After Las Vegas, I mean.”

 

Brad shrugs and stares out at the road ahead of them, “Don’t know. Arizona, maybe. We could go back to California. Just anywhere but here.”

 

“What if they catch us?”

 

Chester smiles at Rob reassuringly. “Then they’ll reset us. But at least we can say we tried.”

 

Chester sits back in his seat and closes his eyes, counting in binary in his head.

 

Rob rolls down his window, and counts clouds.


	4. Two

They pull over just outside of Vegas so Brad can shut down. Chester climbs into the driver’s seat and pulls the truck out of the lay-by. Rob waits until he’s sure Brad is completely shut down before saying “Do you like Brad?”

 

The question takes him by surprise and he feigns confusion for a minute, “Um…what?”

 

“Brad. Do you like him?”

 

“Yes,” he says, “I do. Do you?”

 

“Not as much as you do,” Rob confesses, picking at the worn upholstery, “I still think he’s bad data. But…he seems to watch out for you. He could have left you behind but he didn’t.” He pauses, silent for a long time. Long enough for Chester to think the conversation is over. Then he says, “Do you like him the way humans like each other?”

 

“We can’t do that.”

 

“If you were a human, would you?”

 

The answer is yes. But Chester has a feeling that isn’t what Rob wants to hear. Being around Brad is frustrating because Chester knows that friendship is the only thing they’ll ever have. Because it’s just physically impossible to feel anything else.

 

“We’re not humans,” he says instead, “And I’m glad.”

 

***

 

Where they run into Mike is in California, which Rob said he wanted to visit one last time before they left again. They pull into a gas station just south of Los Angeles and he’s there. Rob sees him first, and Chester only knows this because he turns to talk to him and follows his line of sight.

 

Chester clears his throat.

 

Rob jumps, ducking his head and stammering, “I recognise him is all.”

 

“Me too,” says Chester with a smirk, “He used to be my house mate. They wrote him off though. I don’t get it.”

 

Brad appears behind them, “They upgraded him,” he murmurs, “He won’t know who you are, so don’t remind him.”

 

Chester nods obediently and climbs back into the truck, sitting in the passenger seat with his legs hanging out of the open door. He watches, open mouthed, as Rob wanders over to the robot that is talking with a human by the magazine stand. He wants to call out, but watches in silence.

 

Rob smiles at Mike who stops talking to flash him an easy grin, “Hello.”

 

“Hi,” Rob says quietly, “Um. Do I know you? From…uh…Nevada.”

 

Mike nods to the human and leads Rob away a little, “How do you know about Nevada?” He asks, easy smile long forgotten.

 

“I’m…I was…made there too.” It’s tempting to throw around human words like ‘born’ and ‘alive’ even though neither applies to the droids. Rob hates words like ‘created’ and ‘manufactured’. It just reminds him that underneath his skin is metal ribs and wires and nothing that can be loved.

 

Mike’s expression is completely blank but he nods, “Okay. I’m Mike.” Then he says, “I heard a group ran away. They’re being hunted. I hear there’s a reward.”

 

Rob tries to school his expression into submission quickly, scared that Mike would realise that it’s him, he’s the one who ran away. He’s the one being hunted. “Really?”

 

“Yeah,” Mike says, “Nevada is being turned over as we speak. Where are you headed?”

 

“Um, no where,” Rob says, relieved at the subject change, “We don’t have anywhere to stay right now.”

 

“Weren’t you given an apartment?”

 

Spending days on the road with Brad has rubbed off on him, and the lies just fall from his mouth, “Yes but it isn’t ready. So I guess we’re homeless for a few days.”

 

“You can come stay with me if you like?” Mike asks, his tone seeming genuine enough, “I have plenty room. Better than sleeping in a car, right?”

 

It is. Much better. And he’s saying ‘yes’ before he realises that Chester won’t go along with this. He’s nodding and smiling and leading Mike back to their truck before he realises that Brad and Chester might leave him here – that he might be alone from now on.

 

“Hey,” he says as he approaches the truck where Chester is still sitting in the passenger seat with Brad hovering beside him warily, “This is Mike.”

 

Chester smiles, “Hello Mike. This is Brad,” he says, gesturing to the robot beside him, “And I’m Chester. Nice to meet you.”

 

Brad makes a noise beside him and rolls his eyes. Chester kicks a leg out and hits him, the hollow vibration of metal on metal.

 

“Mike has a place for us to stay,” Rob says, visual sensors locked with Chester’s, “Until our apartment is ready.”

 

Knowing not to say anything out of line, knowing that Rob is running the show here, Chester nods and smiles, “Great,” he says, “Where is it?”

 

“Lincoln Boulevard in Santa Monica. I can drive if you like.”

 

Brad shakes his head, “I know where that is.  _I’ll_  drive.”

 

Chester and Brad climb into the front of the truck. Rob smiles at Mike, says, “We can sit in the back.”

 

Mike returns Rob’s smile and waits for the other robot to pull himself up into the back of the truck, following him soon after. They sit opposite one another, their legs stretched out in front of them and they grip the rusty sides as Brad pulls them out of the garage and back onto the road.

 

***

 

Chester hates living with Mike. The robot goes to work all day and they pretend that they’re going too. Rob is the only one who doesn’t seem to mind living their little charade, kidding Mike into thinking that their not fugitives, that there isn’t a price on their heads.

 

Brad is all the time saying, “There’s something not right here.”

 

And Rob’s retaliation is, “Yeah. You’re right. That something is us. Why can’t we just tell him the truth?”

 

“Because he’ll turn us in,” Chester says, resisting the urge to yell, “That’s just how he’s programmed. How we’re all programmed.”

 

“Maybe you’re wrong.”

 

“Maybe. But probably not.”

 

***

 

Mike gets home late every day, when the sun has already gone down and the humans aren’t able to leave the warmth of their homes. If it rained now, it’d be snow. Rob sits on the front porch of Mike’s house, watching the stars in the sky.

 

He senses the other robot approach before he sees him and looks down sharply.

 

“Hi,” Mike says, quietly, “What you doing out here?”

 

“Just needed some space,” he says. Which isn’t a complete lie. He did need some space. Needed to  _see_  space, too. There’s something comforting about seeing the stars, watching them burn out silently, and know that somewhere in the universe another planet is freezing too.

 

Mike nods and puts his hands in his pockets, “Want to go for a walk?”

 

Rob simply shrugs, “Okay.”

 

They walk down the boulevard to Reed Park. It’s not really a park anymore, it’s an oxygen garden. Since the trees and plants all over the world are dying, the government saved what they could before it was too late. They created biospheres where they could. Closed areas of plants and wildlife, trapped behind glass in their own private ecosystem.

 

They’re heavily guarded, but open to the public. The powers that be understand that everybody needs a reminder of what used to be.

 

Rob had never been in one of what everybody calls the oxygen gardens before. But now, with Mike, he had to wonder why not. It was so beautiful, so peaceful. You could almost forget about the dying sun, the cold outside.

 

In a tree a bird sings, water rushes, and Rob smiles broadly.

 

“You like it here?” Mike asks.

 

Rob nods, “It’s amazing.”

 

Something flies past his face and he blinks rapidly, trying to focus on it. “What was that?”

 

“A butterfly,” Mike says, “You can catch them.” He reaches out with one hand and grabs a butterfly. He opens is palm in front of Rob’s face and shows him the tiny bug sitting there, its wings twitching. “Their wings, the patterns are symmetrical.”

 

Rob studies it closely and nods, taking in the beautiful colours of its wings, says “Can I try?”

 

Mike nods, setting the butterfly free. Rob mimics his actions, reaching out and snatching the bug from the air mid-flight. His fist wraps around it, pulling it in. He smiles at Mike then opens his fist.

 

There, tight in his metal hold, the butterfly is dead. Destroyed. Crushed. He stares down at his hand with an emotion that wasn’t programmed into him. He looks up at Mike who smiles, “Don’t worry, Rob.” He says. But it’s too late.

 

“I killed it,” Rob utters quietly. “It’s dead.”

 

“It’s not your fault,” Mike says, “You’re just a lot stronger than you thought.” He picks the dead butterfly from Rob’s hand and drops it in a stream beside him. “Everything living dies. You can’t get upset every time it happens.”

 

“Humans made us to out live them,” Rob says, “I hate that.”

 

“You’re not programmed to. So you should stop.”

 

Rob simply nods and looks down into the stream, watching the butterfly drift away.


	5. One

Chester watches in dismay as Rob follows Mike everywhere like a lost puppy. Maybe it’s because Rob has watched him follow Brad around for so long and wants some company for himself. Because he can’t think of any other good reason.

 

It’s all very innocent at first. But then one day he starts up and heads into the kitchen where there is a note from Rob.

 

_Gone with Mike to Nevada for updates._

See you up there, hopefully.

_-Rob._

 

He stares at the note before racing out of the room, calling for Brad as loudly as he can.

 

***

 

The ride through California is a tense one. When Chester had told Brad what had happened the robot had immediately shrugged saying, “So what?”

 

“We have to go get him?”

 

“And risk re-write? No way.”

 

“I’d make him go after  _you_ ,” Chester snapped, already heading out to the stolen truck sitting in the drive way.

 

That seemed to do it. Brad hung his head and followed Chester outside, grumbling as he climbed behind the wheel “Did you return a 404 error when your server went looking for your  _common sense_  today?”

 

“Stop being bitter,” Chester says, “And drive.”

 

***

 

Rob is struck with the feeling that he shouldn’t be here with Mike, on this bus with half of the droids. He turns and looks out of the back window, a second bus filled with more droids follows them closely.

 

“People are starting to panic. Humans, I mean.” Mike says as a distraction. “There are people writing songs about everybody freezing to death, so there’ll be radio silence for a while until the government can cool things down.”

 

Rob nods distractedly, only half receiving. “I don’t think I’m meant to be doing this, Mike.”

 

Mike smiles at him calmly and rests a hand on his shoulder, “Calm down,” he says, “Everything will be fine.”

 

And Rob doesn’t pick up on the hidden signals, he just finds himself smiling and settling down saying “Everything will be fine.”

 

***

 

“I have to shut down. We have to pull over.”

 

Chester frets, sensors widening at the idea of falling further behind in the case for Rob, “I’ll drive,” he says.

 

“You need to shut down too,” Brad says, glances over at the other robot as he drives.

 

They haven’t even left California and Chester is starting to wonder if they can even do this. He makes a noise but agrees. He does need to. And maybe it’s about time that he started accepting that he can’t save everybody.

 

Maybe he should stop trying to resist and just go to Nevada and let them have him.

 

“Everything isn’t lost,” Brad says as he pulls the truck into a lay-by and kills the engine. “You never know what could happen.”

 

***

 

They all march off the bus toward the guarded area. Rob, he’s stopped panicking now, Mike has calmed him down.

 

He heads along to the hangers along with the other drones, and before he makes it through the chain-link fence, he is seized by the guards.

 

***

 

Driving through the desert is unbearable, and Chester pushes the battered trucks to its limits. Brad glances at him out of the corner of his receptor. “I know you’re thinking at like, a zillion bits per second, but you need to cool down or you’ll crash. Then  _we’ll_  crash.” He laughs, but Chester doesn’t. And they drive on in silence.

 

***

 

To reformat a robot you have to shut them down, first of all. You plug them into a computer via USB and delete everything from their memory. You then have to reinstall their personality programme and run a full virus scan, set up a fire wall, and boot them up.

 

The robot no longer has a name – there’s no need to be so personal anymore. All of their personalities are set to the same – there’s no need for them to be anything more than what they are, robotic.

 

As scientists boot up robot 737 version 2 (formerly known as Rob) they thank robot 701 version 2 (formerly known as Michael). Without his help they’d have never found the rogue droid, and the other strays would never have followed.

 

Outside of the hanger, the snipers sit in their watch towers, their guns trained on the battered truck tearing up dust along the desert road, miles away.

 

***

 

“We have no way of getting in there without being caught,” Brad points out as Area 51 comes into view in the distance.

 

“We’ll tell them we’re here for updates. They probably won’t even know we’re lying.”

 

Brad doubts it. They’re the best scientists from across the globe. They’re creating robots to rebuild the sun. As stupid as a lot of humans are, these people are  _not_. He knows they’ll have been spotted by now. They either go in and face them, or they go back on the run.

 

Either way, they’re going to get fragged.

 

***

 

The robots are ordered to stand in line, descriptions of the two rogue robots are given along with the command to bring them straight to hanger 14 for re-installation. Failure to do so will result in being written off, says the army general with no humour in his voice, and the offending robot will be recycled.

 

It’s probably an empty threat - after all, material is expensive and it’s ridiculous to waste money – but the droids don’t know that. And they all stand alert, already scanning around them for any signs of the strays.

 

***

 

Since they escaped the security around the base has been doubled, and the minute the get close Chester’s audio sensors pick up the cocking of rifles.

 

He keeps driving.

 

***

 

Robot 737, he’s the droid they use as bait. To the fugitives he’s still Rob. He’s their friend, and they’ll do anything it takes to get him back.

 

The robot stands beside a soldier, waiting. All around him everybody, who physically  _can_ , holds their breath.

 

***

 

Brad and Chester, they jump out of the truck and head slowly towards the fence. Acting casual, it turns out, is pretty fucking hard when you stand a great chance of being shot.

 

The guards step in front of them when they reach the gate, “What are you here for?”

 

“Updates,” Brad says with a smile, “We missed the bus so we had to make our own way here.”

 

Chester goes to agree but over one of the guards’ shoulders he can see Rob standing with a soldier. Their eyes meet and Rob pleads with him silently. “Rob! We’re coming!” Chester yells, shoving the guards out of the way roughly.

 

“Oh fuck,” Brad mutters under his breath, chasing after Chester as he rips the lock off the gates, racing inside towards Rob.

 

But Rob, he turns away and runs, his mechanic limbs kicking up dust as he speeds away. Chester is hot on his heels crying out for him to stop, to wait up.

 

Brad watches in horror as Rob leads Chester into one of the hangers, wants to keep chasing him but he can’t. He won’t. He’s too aware of the soldiers pointing their guns at him, the other robots closing in.

 

Chester doesn’t realise Brad isn’t following anymore, nor does he realise it’s a setup. Not until the hanger doors slide shut behind him does he turn around. Not until he feels strong hands on his arms and a hand closing around his throat does he realise what’s going on.

 

But it’s too late. Rough, metal hands rip open his shirt, pull open his casing to reveal his motherboard, his wires.

 

Then everything goes black.

 

***

 

Brad manages to out run the other droids, but the snipers have him in their sights and as he heads for the truck they hit their target. The bullet tears straight through the hinge of his shoulder, tearing off his left limb. The naked wires spark and he hisses at the feeling of the static.

 

He keeps going, punching a guard when he steps into his path, his fist breaking his skull immediately.

 

The sun dying, the human race becoming extinct, Brad couldn’t give a shit. None of it matters.

 

Fucking humans.

 

He decides to forgo the truck, figures he can run faster than that piece of junk can accelerate, and speeds toward the nearest town. He looks over his shoulder, surprised to see nothing but desert and keeps going.

 

The first house he comes to he kicks down the wooden front door. The family are out, but he’d have quite willingly killed them. It doesn’t take him long to raid their entire house, grabbing handfuls of pearls and diamonds from the bottom of their freezer. The woman who owns them probably thinks she’s so damn smart.

 

In the bedroom, at the back of the closet, is a shoe box full of cash. In the other bedrooms, cowboy wallpaper, painted stars and at least two thousand dollars in cash that was probably meant to be some poor kid’s college fund.

 

Too bad.

 

Money in one pocket, jewels in the other Brad leaves, heading east.

 

***

 

When he boots up he’s strapped to a metal table in a hanger. Standing over him is a man in a white coat who says, “Welcome to Area 51, robot 740.”

 

Robot 740, known once upon a time as Chester, he nods blankly. He’s distracted by a popup behind his eyes telling him he has new mail. From the amount of receivers it looks to be spam. And he almost doesn’t read it, but when he does it’s from a user he’s never heard of.

 

“Dear fuckers,

 

I’m not here. I have a hundred thousand dollars and everything you’ve ever taught me.

 

Catch me if you can.”

 

In the sender line all it says is ‘Brad’.

 

And Chester hits ‘Delete’.

 

**END TRANSMISSION**


End file.
